Legion baseball: Fredericksburg pulls upset in opener

Fredericksburg s Brad Kreiser ducks in under the tag of Campbelltown catcher Bryce Betz and is safe at home during the sixth inning of Game One of their Lebanon County Legion baseball semifinal series at Palmyra Area High School on Wednesday. Kreiser also homered earlier in the game to help Fredericksburg to a dominating 9-1 victory against the defending county champs.
(LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

PALMYRA - As evidenced by its 7-7-1 record and season-long uneven, up-and-down play, the Fredericksburg Legion baseball team was the very definition of mediocrity heading into its Lebanon County playoff opener against Campbelltown.

The operative word being "was."

Much to the delight of manager Jim McKinney and much to the chagrin of top-seeded regular-season champ Campbelltown, the rag-tag regular-season edition of Fredericksburg was nowhere to be found Wednesday evening.

Playing by far its best baseball of the season, the 'Burg dominated defending county titleholder Campbelltown in all phases of the game en route to a convincing 9-1 victory in Game One of their best-of-three semifinal series at Palmyra Area High School.

With Brad Kreiser fronting a 14-hit attack with a solo home run and an RBI single and Ian Whitman tossing a complete-game four-hitter aided by error-free defense, Fredericksburg looked more like a No. 1 seed and the team to beat than its now 12-4 host did.

Whether or not that remains the case will be determined tonight, when the series shifts to Fredericksburg's Earl Wenger Field for Game Two. Fredericksburg will call on Zach Smith in its bid to close things out, while Campbelltown will send Mitchell Sauley to the mound in hopes of forcing a Game 3 on Friday.

"We moved runners early, we played aggressive baseball, we had good defense," McKinney said, running down a lengthy list of positives he saw from his club.

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"We played our game tonight. We played a very nice game tonight, and against good pitching. (Campbelltown ace Josh) Sollenberger is a good pitcher, so for us to hit him and play like we did - I'm very pleased."

The view was a little different from C-town manager Tim Morgan's vantage point. Winners of the last four regular-season titles, Campbelltown flashed little championship form, committing three costly early errors and a few ill-timed baserunning blunders on those rare opportunities when it threatened Whitman.

"It started out from the very beginning, there was no sense of urgency here tonight at all," Morgan said. "We just played awesome Sunday night, and that's what you need to now. We had errors and a couple baserunning mistakes, and (Whitman) had us off-balance. We did all the little things wrong today."

Meanwhile, Fredericksburg did all the little - and big - things well. And it all began with Kreiser's solo blast to left - on a 3-2 pitch - off Sollenberger with one out in the top of the second, a hit that was big for numerical and psychological reasons.

"I guess it started us a little bit," Kreiser said modestly of his homer. "At 3-2, I just wanted to go up there and protect (the plate), and I got a good rip on the ball.

Fredericksburg pitcher Ian Whitman was in fine form Wednesday evening, firing a complete-game four-hitter that helped Fredericksburg to a 9-1 win against Campbelltown in Game One of their best-of-three semifinal series. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

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"I think it brought the team into it a little, got 'em excited," McKinney said of Kreiser's roundtripper. "I think we only had one or two home runs all year, so for us to actually hit a home run, that's a big thing for us."

Feeding off that emotion, Fredericksburg added a second run in the second when Jon McKinney scored on the back end of a double steal, then made it a 3-0 game in the third via Jordan Seltzer's two-out bloop double that plated Daulton Ritter.

Campbelltown dented Whitman's armor slightly in the home half of the third when Trent Filter smacked an RBI single to right. But a baserunning mistake kept C-town from adding on in that inning, and it would do no more damage against Whitman, who fanned seven while going the distance.

"Ian threw a great game tonight," McKinney said. "He kept it around the (strike) zone. When he does that, he's a very, very effective pitcher."

"He pitched an awesome game," Morgan said. "He had three good pitches going tonight. I thought he had the fastball, knuckleball and slider."

And after Fredericksburg batted around and scored six times in a lengthy top of the sixth, Whitman had much more support than he would need.

Garrett Getz and Smith struck the big blows with two-run singles, and Ritter and Kreiser added RBI hits of their own, as Fredericksburg knocked Sollenberger out of the game while knocking itself into the driver's seat of the series.

It may have taken longer than it should have, but the Fredericksburg team everyone expected to see finally appears to have arrived.

"I believe so," Kreiser said, when asked if the real Fredericksburg team showed up on Wednesday night. "We definitely have the talent to be the team we played like tonight. We just gotta stay focused and play like we can.

"I think we were all excited to get started, because Campbelltown's a big rivalry for us. We just wanted to stay relaxed, come out and hit the ball."

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